Essay: Solitary Confinement In California

Anthony Arteaga, a prisoner being held in the Security Housing Unit at Corcoran State Prison, sent us an essay he wrote about the history of solitary confinement in California. In his words:

“Having been slammed down in the SHU since 2001, for an indeterminate period, I’ve constructed this writing based on personal experience and studies. I’ve also utilized PHSS, the Rock, The Abolitionist, MIM and PLN as resources for factual assertions… Thank you for the support.”

Anthony also asked us to publish his name and address, which is at the bottom of this page. The article is typed as written. Please take time for a thorough read through!
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Solitary Confinement In California

In the 1970s there was a general tendency to regard the basic aim of imprisonment as rehabilitation of the criminal rather than as punishment. In addition, federal courts – often as a result of prisoners acting as their own lawyers – began to recognize for the first time that prisoners had constitutional rights: Most notably, the right to due process prior to discipline, any sanctions, and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment in the form of deplorable prison conditions.

This of course didn’t last. Before long the emphasis on prisoners’ rights and prison reform, distinguishably trail blazed by the events at Attica State Prison in New York, followed by several other less publicized prison uprisings and riots of the same agenda, began to evaporate in the face of the “tough on crime” and “war on drugs” crusades.

By the mid-1970’s, a series of decisions by the US Supreme Court, gutted the protections earlier envisioned as guarantees of prisoners’ well-being and dignity. Rather than to continue implementing programs of rehabilitation, prisoncrats throughout the country began to develop special solitary confinement units (control/Security Housing Units/etc).

One of the very first of these units to be built was at the Marion Federal Penitentiary in Illinois. Here, men were being confined to tiny cells the size of a parking space for 23 to 24 hours a day. Solitary confinement units have always been part of the prison environment. In some cases it has been used to place prisoners in protective custody, when either the prisoner or prison staff believed that a life threatening situation existed. And of course, solitary confinement has traditionally been used as a disciplinary measure to punish infractions of prison rules.

However, the idea of these control/SHU’s was very different; namely, that certain prisoners had to be permanently separated from the general population due to their supposed influence over other prisoners. In essence, they were now being subjugated to prolonged isolation for indefinite periods; whereby being relegated to the status of incorrigible specimens who can only be governed, controlled, conditioned and suppressed to dehumanizing submission. In simple terms, to break a man’s spirit.

This idea soon caught on and isolation units were being established everywhere, and not long before they were being specially constructed into new prisons.

For over 25 years here in California, the Department of Corrections (CDCR) has had a policy of removing prisoners from the general population, validating them as either prison gang members or associates, and indefinitely confining them to said types of isolation units. And just like other political figures, prison officials used propaganda about the supposed menace of these prison gangs, and the difficulties and dangers of dealing with them, to encourage and maintain public indifference to what prisoners were actually going through on the inside.

In the 1980’s, under the above guise, most of these men were placed at either, Duel Vocational Institute (Tracy), [old] Folsom, San Quentin and Soledad Correctional Training Facility, where over one fifth of the general population at these institutions were housed in each of its segregated lockup units.

Ultimately falling in line with the trends of the time, California opened up three maximum-Security Housing Units of its own at Tehachapi, Corcoran and Pelican Bay. Most recently, a fourth SHU opened up at [old] Folsom, where approximately 4,000 men, combined, have now been housed for up to 5, 10, 20 and even over 30 years.

These SHU’s are literally human warehouses saturated by recycled air and blight monotony. Both days and nights are cloaked with the eerie sense of history slowly repeating itself. Specifically that of the 16th – 19th centuries, where the indigenous populations of the Americas were gradually being eradicated by its oppressors. Only difference here is committing the actual deed itself, and the name it’s being done under: “safety and security” – both of which resemble “Liberty” in that many crimes are committed in its name.

By 1997, 45 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the federal system, were operating these types of units, with California holding the most prisoners within them than any other US state or nation. This fact continues to grow at an alarming rate.

The majority of California prisoners serving indeterminate SHU terms are the result of these pseudo-prison gang validations. Gang policies to which civil rights lawyers have long been critical of. The procedures used to identify gang affiliates are severely flawed and lacking in meaningful due process protections. Evidence used in these proceedings would never satisfy the “preponderance of the evidence” requirement of a normal legal proceeding. But because of the US Supreme Court decision in Superintendent v. Hill (1985) holding that the due process clause requires only the existence of “some evidence” in support of a decision to segregate an inmate, the court gave prison administrators more arbitrary powers and discretion over prisoners’ daily lives. This naturally leading to shrinking further and further the process of any accountability for, or recourse from, the many perverse ways they’ve come to abuse that power.

Under current policy, validated prisoners are not allowed to confront their accusers (or even to know who they are), nor are they allowed to cross-examine witnesses, present their own evidence or prove their case before a panel of neutral decision-makers. You’re basically guilty, and there’s no “until proven innocent”.

In 1999, after many individual petitions and class action suits brought before both state and federal courts challenging these policies, and inhumane SHU conditions, the six year “active/inactive gang status review” was implemented. A policy requiring a validated inmate to remain free of any and all gang related activity and association for no period less than six years, in order to be considered (and rarely granted) general population release.

A policy and process just as flawed as ones initial gang validation, because the crux of it is, gang activity is whatever these alleged gang intelligence experts choose to deem as gang related, without being afforded a meaningful opportunity of contesting them.

The procedural due process currently in place consists of being reviewed every 180 days and annually. However, these reviews are largely meaningless gestures and shams of proceedings in light of the fact that, one first has to complete the minimal six year requisite.

Since the late 1990’s to present, it’s evident that inmates are not being validated to restore order or to maintain security, but maliciously for the purpose of causing pain and inflicting punishment in an attempt to break a man’s spirit. Equally evident is the fact that, despite the creation of California SHU’s, prison violence in the general population setting is far more violent now than it was over 25 years ago.

Said California prison gang validations have become a pretext to indefinitely confine its inmates to these SHUs at the expense of their well-being, and its only real escape coming in one of three ways… An individual can either choose to “debrief” – that is, to tell gang investigators everything they know about who’s involved in gang activity both inside and outside of the prison system, including crimes in which they’ve committed themselves; “parole” or “die”. “Snitch, parole or die”, as the policy is more commonly known by.

Mental deterioration runs rampant and silent within the confines of these SHU’s. In fact, social science and clinical literature has consistently reported that, men are social animals, and when human beings are subjected to social isolation and reduced environmental stimulation, their lives both internally and externally is disrupted, inevitably leading to the development of a predictable group of symptoms, e.g. anxiety, frustration, dejections, boredom, abandonment, paranoia, rumination and severe depression. Facts supported by an ample and growing body of evidence that this phenomenon especially occurs among prisoners in solitary confinement… persons who are by definition subjected to a significant degree of social isolation and reduced environmental stimulation.

In 2011, after endless years of withstanding such psychological torture, a collective group of men confined to Pelican Bay SHU initiated two separate state-wide hunger strikes, during the months of July and September. These protests were aimed towards contesting the inhumane conditions indefinite SHU confinement inmates have been subjugated to. This collective group compiled a list of five demands for CDCR officials. Those demands were:

In October of 2011, in response to said hunger strikes, CDCR officials outlined changes that would be made in the SHU program. And in March of 2012, released new proposed gang management policies. Under the new policies however, accused gang members can still be segregated indefinitely, SHU conditions remain largely the same, and other changes are mere window-dressing. Overall, CDCR’s proposal shows that they will continue to resist both change and accountability.

The month of March was also significant with Juan Mendez, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (followed by California prisoner and their advocates), petitioning the UN to end lengthy solitary confinement in prisons. Expressing that it would inevitably result in serious mental and physical damage amounting to torture.

So what lies ahead… A united group of human beings determined to bring about actual SHU reform, and regaining the right to being treated humanely. This comes with the knowledge that, the oppressing power in opposition to such changes, will concede to nothing absent a committed struggle and demand… A struggle and demand that will come at a cost, but a cost to which strength to live and reasons for acting should continue to be drawn from.

7 thoughts on “Essay: Solitary Confinement In California”

Anthony wrote a great article covering the history of the Security Housing Unit from Corcoran ( The prison the gladiator wars were staged and gambled on by Guards ) In his article he stands on the same points I made in my book Underdog, A True Crime Thriller of Prison Life. Anthony is an articulate leader for change from inside of the SHU.

Reblogged this on Glenn Langohr's Stunning Memoirs– of Life in Prison- In Print, Kindle and Audio Book and commented:
Anthony wrote a great article covering the history of the Security Housing Unit from Corcoran ( The prison the gladiator wars were staged and gambled on by Guards ) In his article he stands on the same points I made in my book Underdog, A True Crime Thriller of Prison Life. Anthony is an articulate leader for change from inside of the SHU. Here’s an excerpt, The majority of California prisoners serving indeterminate SHU terms are the result of these pseudo-prison gang validations. Gang policies to which civil rights lawyers have long been critical of. The procedures used to identify gang affiliates are severely flawed and lacking in meaningful due process protections. Evidence used in these proceedings would never satisfy the “preponderance of the evidence” requirement of a normal legal proceeding. But because of the US Supreme Court decision in Superintendent v. Hill (1985) holding that the due process clause requires only the existence of “some evidence” in support of a decision to segregate an inmate, the court gave prison administrators more arbitrary powers and discretion over prisoners’ daily lives. This naturally leading to shrinking further and further the process of any accountability for, or recourse from, the many perverse ways they’ve come to abuse that power.

[[[[[ We are distributing these articles to media, to legislators, and to religious and human rights organizations to help stimulate conversation and action toward bringing all departments of corrections into the 21st century. ]]]]]

“A study…compared illegal activity in the yard before and after the honors program was established. It showed that weapons infractions decreased 88%, violence and threatening behavior dropped 85% and drug-related offences and trafficking were down 43%.” -L.A. Times

This website aims to raise
public awareness of the pervasive risk of harm that Washington’s Department of Corrections’ violent prison culture poses toward staff and prisoners alike. Both, despite their differences, share a basic goal: not just survival, but the creation of a safe and secure environment for ALL concerned.

All who are associated with this website, whether those whose stories appear hereon, or those who one way or another support the above mentioned objective, simply want the Washington Department of Corrections (WDOC) to move swiftly to create a “Sensitive Needs Yard” (SNY), so that prisoners who want and choose to can safely get out of the snakepit of violence, drugs and criminality that currently defines the dangerous state of things within WDOC.

Without minimizing the need to secure a safer environment for staff who have to work the “line,” or the rights of prisoners who have to live the “line,” we also emphasize our agreement with former WDOC Secretary, Mr. Eldon Vail, who, in the aftermath of the tragic murder of WDOC corrections officer Ms. Jayne Biendl, stated ( paraphrased): SAFE COMMUNITIES BEGIN WITH SAFE AND SECURE PRISONS.

The logic in this statement is undeniable. But the problem lies in the disconnect between theory and practice. Safer communities do indeed depend on safer prisons, but safer prisons depend on THE POLITICAL WILL TO MAKE THEM SO.

WDOC is an archipelago of prisons that are, to quote the United States Supreme Court:

“…places of involuntary confinement of persons who have a demonstrated proclivity for anti-social criminal, and often violent, conduct. Inmates have necessarily shown a lapse in ability to control and conform their behavior to the legitimate standards of society by the normal impulses of self-restraint; they have shown an inability to regulate their conduct in a way that reflects either a respect for law or an appreciation of the rights of others.”

Nevertheless, prison administrators and staff are constitutionally charged with the challenging responsibilities of keeping themselves safe while ensuring that prisoners receive adequate food, clothing, shelter and medical care, and that reasonable measures guaranteeing prisoners’ safety are in place, for
the highest court in the United States has long made it clear:

Why no “iron curtain”? “[W]hen the state takes a person into its custody and holds him there against his will,” says the US Supreme Court, “the Constitution imposes upon it a corresponding duty to assume some responsibility for his safety and general well being.” In support of this legal principle, the same Court explained its logic:

“[H]aving stripped [prisoners] of virtually every means of self-protection and foreclosed their access to outside aid, the government and its officials are not free to let the state of nature take its
course.”

This gets us back to reality: There’s an entire ocean of space between Mr. Vail’s logical formula for safe communities, and the day-to-day realities behind WDOC’s closed doors. The state of nature has taken its course in WDOC’s prisons, and because this is so, neither staff, prisoners nor our communities are safe.

[[[ We are looking forward to reading the two final sections of this article, which will be appearing here soon. They will compare and contrast the criminal codes of the two main gangs in Washington’s prison system: the code of prison gangs, and the code of a small, but very powerful, gang of corrupted Department of Corrections employees.]]]

“Long-term isolation can create or exacerbate serious mental health problems and assaultive or anti-social behaviors, result in negative outcomes for institutional safety, and increase the risk of
recidivism after release….”

Vera Director Michael Jacobson Submits Testimony
on Reassessing Solitary Confinement to the
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights

NEW YORK, NY―The first-ever Congressional hearing on solitary
confinement is being held today by the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights. Solitary confinement—also known as segregation—long used to manage difficult prison populations, has come under closer scrutiny by policy makers in recent years, as more jurisdictions are looking for alternatives to this exceptionally expensive and increasingly harsh form of incarceration. The Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) is currently working with Illinois, Washington State, and Maryland to develop such safe alternatives.

As Vera Director Michael Jacobson told the Subcommittee in written testimony, the use of solitary confinement by state and federal prisons has skyrocketed in recent decades. “Segregation was developed as a method for handling highly dangerous prisoners,Jacobson said. Increasingly, however, “it
has been used with prisoners who do not pose a threat to staff or other prisoners but are placed in segregation for minor violations that are disruptive but not violent.”

The reexamination of solitary confinement is driven, in part, by recent research suggesting that segregation is often counterproductive. “Long-term isolation can create or exacerbate serious mental health problems and assaultive or anti-social behaviors, result in negative outcomes for institutional safety, and increase the risk of recidivism after release,Jacobson told the Subcommittee. The current fiscal crisis is also prompting state prison systems to curtail expensive and ineffective practices, Jacobson said. “States can no longer afford these costs,he remarked.

Pointing to one promising advance, Jacobson described the
work of Vera’s Segregation Reduction Project (SRP). Launched in 2010, SRP is the first project of its kind to work with state prison systems to reduce safely the number of prisoners held in segregation and to improve the conditions of solitary confinement for those who remain. Currently, Vera is partnering with Illinois, Maryland, and Washington State and is in the process of extending SRP to a fourth state in the Southwest.

Based on the lessons learned thus far through SRP, Jacobson offered a series of policy recommendations that jurisdictions could undertake now to curtail the public safety and financial costs of over-reliance on segregation, including:

Safely using alternative disciplinary sanctions for all but serious rules violations;

Reducing segregation time for certain categories of violations, when safety considerations permit;

Reviewing the existing segregated population to better understand who is being placed into isolation and why;

Providing segregated prisoners with incentives for sustained good behavior, to reduce segregation time;

Separating special populations (for example, people in protective custody or with severe mental illness) into dedicated housing units where programming, procedures, and other conditions are tailored to their needs; and

Increasing programming for prisoners in segregation to enhance their chances of
successfully avoiding future disciplinary or justice system involvement.

To help support such change, Jacobson recommended that Congress take steps to mandate and fund the following efforts:

The collection of national data on segregation. A comprehensive census with precise definitions of types of segregation is vital to inform decision-making and legislation;
A national study on the impact of segregation to assess the costs of the use of (different types of) segregation compared to housing in the general population, and costs associated with incarceration in prison overall; and the development of national standards on the use of segregation to encourage the field to adopt best practices.

Burying people alive in solitary confinement costs up to THREE TIMES AS MUCH as housing them in Sensitive Needs Yard facilities!

No wonder most departments of correction (including Washington’s) don’t want to talk about it. Conveniently, they don’t even keep track of that cost comparison! Here’s the response you will get from WDOC if you try
to find out what this medieval practice is costing us:

“I have been asked to respond to your email dated June 17, 2012. You had asked for the average cost per year of housing a prisoner in an intensive management unit and the average cost per year of housing a prisoner in general population. Although the Department recognizes there may be a higher cost to house an offender in an intensive management unit, we do not break out those costs separately.”

Go to the excellent website below for the astounding lowdown on this colossal waste of taxpayer money. Here’s an excerpt from it:

” Reforms Lead to Savings

“Spurred by
litigation, legislation, leadership, and local activism, a handful of states have recently taken steps to reduce the number of prisoners they hold in solitary—a move that has clear fiscal benefits.

How SENSITIVE NEEDS YARDS or Honor Yards Save Taxpayers Millions Every Year

Keeping sensitive needs prisoners in “protective custody” by throwing them into solitary confinement as WDOC does now, not only costs the prisoners dearly in terms of physical and mental health; it MORE THAN DOUBLES THE CUSTODY COSTS!

Separating predator prisoners from their potential victims drastically lowers the number of assaults, medical expenses, lawsuits, etc. Besides being conducive to mental and physical health, education and rehabilitation, SENSITIVE NEEDS YARDS are by far the most inexpensive way of housing prisoners.

WDOC’s present practice of forcing rehabilitating prisoners to live among violent prisoners simply gives the predators AN ENDLESS SUPPLY OF VICTIMS. (This also conveniently gives any potentially corrupt WDOC or union officials a perfect opportunity to expand their turf and continually threaten and plead for ever bigger and bigger budgets by pointing out the high violence rates to the legislature and the media!)

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Crowding at Prison Threatens Honor Program

Dangerous criminals at the Lancaster facility are being housed with those who have pledged peace.

By Richard Fausset
LA Times Staff Writer

An innovative program that seeks to reduce violence among maximum-security inmates is being severely tested at the state prison in Lancaster, where a population squeeze is forcing officials to house dangerous criminals with others who have vowed to remain peaceful.

Since 2000, Lancaster’s honor yard program has created a special housing area for prisoners who have promised to stay away
from gangs [of the violent variety], drugs and violence. Families, convicts and prison experts have praised the program for reducing violent incidents, and prison officials have considered taking the idea to other lockups around the state.

But last month, about 130 inmates who did not meet the criteria were transferred to honor yard housing, prison spokesman Lt. Ken Lewis said Monday. Some of them are responsible for a stabbing March 16 and a violent melee Friday involving six prisoners.

As a result of the fight, some honor inmates remained locked in their cells Monday while prison guards investigated the incident.

Lewis acknowledged that the transfer ran the risk of diluting the honors program.

“But our main goal is to house inmates, [and] we have to do what we have to do to house inmates. We’re overcrowded,” he said.

The honors yard now houses 850 inmates.

Lewis said that state corrections officials had told the prison to make more room for convicts with “sensitive needs,” [such as informants or other potential targets]. In the last few weeks, the number of these inmates has doubled to 2,000.

That change displaced inmates who do not qualify for either the sensitive needs or honors program. Some were shipped to different prisons, but others remained at Lancaster, where the only beds available for them were in the honor yard, he said.

Kenneth E. Hartman, an honors program inmate, wrote a letter to Youth and Adult Corrections Secretary Roderick Q. Hickman after the March stabbing incident, saying he feared it was “the start of a spate of violence.”

Lt. Charles Hughes, president of the local chapter of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., said that staff members also worried about the changes. But he hoped the prison could find a way to maintain peace in the yard, he said.

“Cops want it, inmates want it and management wants it,” Hughes said. “I still think with some good managerial stuff we can make it work.”

The recent melee was quelled when officers fired block
guns and sprayed mace at the fighting inmates. Giving few details, Lewis said all of the honor yard’s black inmates and those classified as racial “others” by the Department of Corrections usually Asians or Pacific Islanders would remain locked in their cells for the time being, because the fight involved members of those two groups.

A study released by Lancaster prison officials in 2003 compared illegal activity in the yard before and after the honors program was established. It showed that weapons infractions decreased 88%, violence and threatening behavior dropped 85% and drug-related offenses and trafficking were down 43%.

We are asking law-makers, administrators,WDOC personnel, etc. to discuss the information on this site, and then consider advocating for a Sensitive Needs Yard policy for WDOC.

IF YOU ARE A MEDIA PERSON:

We can supply you with contact information and can facilitate interviews, etc. with activist prisoners with whom we have worked for many years.

IF YOU ARE A WASHINGTON PRISONER:

Have your story emailed to us (anonymously if necessary). How have pressures exerted by extortionists/thugs, and the like affected your life and the lives of others? How would your prison life be different if you could choose to live separate from those who choose drugs, violence, criminality?

IF YOU ARE A RESIDENT OF WASHINGTON:

Contact your legislators and the media asking them to explore the tremendous proven savings in taxpayer dollars and human misery that Sensitive Needs Yard policies have brought about in other states.
(Also sometimes called “honor yard.”)

IF YOU ARE ANY OF THE ABOVE:

Familiarize yourself with the stories and other information which will be appearing on this website and in other sources. Write your own story and email it to us for possible (anonymous if necessary) publication on this site. Contact Washington legislators and administrators, WDOC officials, and media with a link to this site (and preferably including your thoughts on this important public safety matter.)

I have recently dropped out of the Sureno car [gang]. I am 35 years old. I have not gang-banged since I was 21. This is my first time down: 2010 – 2013. When I first got to prison I tried to stay out of the “politics.” But prison gives you no choice. I was put in the lower Rs in Shelton’s Washington Correctional Center, with nothing but Surenos. I had nowhere else to go but to join the influence of the gang. I try to stay out of trouble but found myself caught in a riot at Stafford Creek. I didn’t
want trouble, it came to me and I had to defend myself. So when I lost good time and got closed out to Washington State Penitentiary I decided I am not going to let gang inluence keep taking good time away from me and my family (3 kids). So I checked into protective custody (IMU: Intensive Management Unit), only to find that there is nothing for me.

IMU is the only safe place for me, and you can not go to church here, you can’t go and get an education, there are no jobs here, and you have to visit your family behind glass. While the gangsters are enjoying mainline pressuring people to do what they want, and if they don’t getting rid of them off into IMU!

It is too bad that when someone wants to better their life by not commiting acts of violence or being in a gang, in the state of Washington there
is no help for us! In two months I will go to another facility, where the Intelligence and Investigation (I&I) tell me it is safe for me. I know however I will be X-ed out. (or assaulted by the Surenos). In spite of that I would rather go than to stay here in IMU. I just hope I don’t lose any more good time.

[[[[[ To correspond with this inmate, email a message to him at epochthree3@yahoo.com with Solitary Story #1 in the subject line. ]]]]

I came to Washington Department of Corrections (WDOC) in 2005 when I was 18 years old and was really trying to rehabilitate myself by turning to my Christian faith. However WDOC officials put me in a 4-man cell with three very violent known gang members who immediately started beating me up because I would not join their gang and their violent ways. After being beat up numerous times and having correctional officers walk by our cell turning their head the other way when they knew I was being assaulted I had no choice but to join the prison gang and get involved, which deprived me of any opportunity of prison rehabilitation and continuing my Christian faith. Instead I was forced to do things against my will.

This went on for three
months and I told my classification counselor in 8-wing Washington State Penitentiary closed custody in February 2006 that I was being abused by my cellmates. But I was still made to return to my cell. For the next two weeks after that I was beaten every day severely until I couldn’t take it any longer and I asked for protective custody. At that time my classification counselor started repeatedly apologizing for allowing me to go back to my cell after I told him I was being abused. The counselor stated he told the CUS, but they thought I was just being picked on. But the bruises all over my body which they confirmed by taking photos said otherwise. The prison authorities were just trying to avoid a lawsuit for failure to protect. After that I was thrown in the hole for protective custody and 3 hours later a prison Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) person came and talked to me, After all that had happened to me he asked
me if I would be willing to go back out to general population to gather information for him of the white supremacists. I told him I don’t think so because I was scared and beaten. But all he was interested in was getting me to tell him information. I was sent to another dangerous closed custody facility at the Washington State Reformatory at the Monroe Correctional Complex and once again put in harms way by being celled up with another white supremacist that was in the same gang as my former cellies at Washington State Penitentiary that I had just told on. On top of that this cellie “paper-checked” me. I told him I didn’t have any paper-work, He said if I didn’t get some he would cut my throat. To save my own life I had no choice but to assault another inmate in order to not have to return to the white supremacist’s cell.

I was then
placed in solitary confinement in an IMU (intensive management unit) at Shelton’s WCC (Washington Corrections Center), where I developed a mental illness from being isolated so long. I started hurting myself, so I then was transferred to a mental health facility and kept in solitary for three years because I kept trying to hurt myself and commit suicide. Instead of putting me in a safe mental health population to get me help, I was instead kept in solitary where I slowly deteriorated mentally, physically and spiritually and gave up hope. I was given minimum, inhuman living conditions.

In February of 2010 I was transferred from Monroe Correctional Complex to a dangerous closed custody facility at Clallam Bay Corrections Center. At Monroe I had asked for protective custody because a white supremacist had made a shank and intended to kill me, so I was kept in solitary on
protective custody for three months there. When I was transferred to Clallam Bay which was even more dangerous, it was only a matter of time before the white supremacists known as the AF (Aryan Family) and their allies Surenos Gangs found out I was transferred on protective custody. I was celled up with a Skin Head gang member who immediatly asked for my papers and I told him I didn’t have any, so he threatened me and grabberd me by the throat and said that if he found out I was no good I better not come back to the cell. So once again I assaulted a Correctional Officer to save my life by being in solitary and out of danger.

Because Washington Department of Corrections doesn’t have a “sensitive needs yard” or honor yard, I was forced to live in extreme danger. I was given twelve months in solitary (IMU) and an extra year in prison. But it was a small price to pay to save my
life from the gangs that I was forced to live with in population. After being in IMU I again started to suffer from insufficient mental health care and sensory deprivation. Now here I am being in IMU for 29 months. I am anti-social and have 72 suicide attempts, self-mutilations. I’ve banged my head open and cut my wrists. This is what being in IMU does to mentally ill people. I have lived it and seen it but I’m not ready so give up. I have been at Walla Walla State Penitentiary for one year now and mental health care is insufficient and poor and does not care about inmates that are suffering in these IMUs like myself. Instead they throw me in a cell buck naked with an unsanitary drain in
thefloor with bars and in order for me to use the drain I have to sit on the cold steel drain on the floor and then the officers will tell me now use your hands and shove your feces down the drain.This is inhumane. There is
no water and soap or a sink for that matter, so I can’t clean the feces off my hands.

These seclusion rooms are used to psychologically break an inmate down, basically the motive is cruel and unusual. Punishment to stop an inmate as myself from asking for help. After hurting myself one day a mental health staff member forced me to walk around naked. His name was Blackham and he let me bang my head for 5 hours and then I had to sleep on the floor naked, freezing cold, then the next day I was sent back to solitary IMU.

If Washington Department of Corrections would have had a sensitive needs yard for me to go to I would have been safe, a model inmate and would have been rehabilitating myself every day. Instead they don’t care about the money a sensitive needs yard would save taxpayers, because in the
end some corrupt prison officials would be losing money because there would be less violence and therefore less money granted to the budget. The system is not about rehabilitation or public safety, it is about a few corrupt Department of Corrections officials’ greed.

I hope this story will help people realize the pain and suffering of those who really want to get rehabilitated, but instead end up suffering.

[[[[[ To correspond with this inmate, email a message to him at epochthree3@yahoo.com with Solitary Story #2 in the subject line. ]]]]]

For the older generation that will hopefully be reading my story, and especially the younger generation, I want you to know I’m not writing my story to seek negative or sensational attention. I’m simply writing a story about my REAL LIFE and being an active gang member for sixteen years — and about changing my life. I also want everyone to understand that just because one has been a gang member does not mean he cannot change his life to a positive. I want you to understand how the odds are
stacked against us ex-gang members being able to change within the Department of Corrections.

For the younger generation: “gang-bangin” serves NO purpose for your family nor for you and your future, nor those who want to help you change. I was in a gang from 1997 to 2007. There were about thirty of us. Every one of us are today in prison or suffering from our educational neglect while struggling to survive economically. This particular gang was originally founded in Chicago. We started a branch in my home town. I was an active gang member with the Bloodz for ten years and simply because of my choice in color I started having issues involving another gang. They were not my rivals, except in colors, and the current homeboys were from another gang, but the same color as I.

1999: I was 15
years old hangin on the westside with twelve other homies including my (Native-gangsta-crip) homies. We all grew up together so there was no beef. All of us were in the back-yard drinkin, just kickin it on the westside. A few hours later my homeboy says, Lets get som LSD.” So we do. Two hours later we all get back with some paper-hits AKA pink elephant. We each take two papers that have two hits on each. Like 45 minutes later we hear a fight break out and I’m positive it’s the two “NGC” cousins. They do the same thing every weekend: they drink and then they fight. So like two hours go by and finally they are done fightin. It’s about 11:50 PM and some of the homies say, “Lets go walk.” Half the homies stay back. So there’s eight of us going, and in 1999 you should always bring eight to ten homies and possibly a gun. By now it’s extremely dark out, and always before we leave the alley we stop to listen and see if anyone’s around.

The only thing any of us hear is a car idling two or three alleys away, so we figure it’s nothing and start walking again. We only get about two houses away when the car slams in gear and peels off in our direction. It’s so dark I have no clue how they ever saw us. As soon as we hear “drive-by” we all break for my homie’s house — my homie from NGC. His house has a back door that immediately drops into his basement. He never tried to open the door. His 240 pounds ran right through his own back door as we all dove into his basement, as hand-gun and shot-gun blasts opened fire on his house. My homie that broke his own door down is now breaking light-bulfs as he slides a pistol-grip 12 gage to me that hits me in my feet. Ten seconds later we hear car doors opening and now there is no back door to his house!

If they try to come in we’re all getting murder charges because there is no way to see any of us, and the way his basement is set up there is no possible way for these guys to win this situation. So my homie says, “Plug your ears so you can hear if they leave when I’m done shooting.” So he puts five rounds of 45 into the foundation. As I unplug my ears I hear people running and car doors slamming and peeling off. We wait till day-light to come out and check the house out. It sounded like they’d put a hundred rounds in the house, but we could only find twelve holes and they’d missed every window. We figured some must have been firing in the air. By this time it’s 7:00 AM and my pager goes off. It’s my Mom. So much has happened this night I’m wondering: why is she paging me so early. So I call and I’d completely forgot it was my cousin’s funeral today! He took his own life with a 30-30 hunting rifle. So now I’m trippin
cuz I’m still pretty messed up from
the LSD.

Anyways, because I’d been in both gangs, I’m extremely lucky to be alive. Like that saying goes (and it’s absolutely true): if you wanna gang-bang there’s two places where you’re gonna end up: in prison or dead. So I’m now sitting in prison for 12 years. If you looked up my police report you would find even the victims say I was not the one who pulled the fatal trigger. You can call that guilty by association, so yes in this case I’m claiming innocence. I’m not saying I’m totally innocent, but in fact “guilty” of things I’ve never been caught for. I’m not bitter, only stating my opinion because it’s my right — especially when the people who tell me to do right, they themselves are not following the same rules which they tell me to follow.

I’ll explain why I’ve decided to change my life. I was seeing my mother and my kids almost every other weekend, but being a gang member took me from my family for seven years. After being a gang member for sixteen years I was extremely tired of loss and heartache. All I have seen since I’ve been in prison is favoritism and a bunch of greedy individuals. Seeing my children in visitation I realize I’ve provided nothing for them, and the fact they have no mother or father to ask those questions I had asked as a child, to experience a bond with your mother and father, which is extremely important. I pray to God they make out in life better than I have. My mother and father are the best parents one could ever hope for, and I had a lot do do with the pain and agony they have been through — so much it could easily make one cry or choke back some tears. It went like this:

Their first-born died when he was only sixteen. Then my cousin took his own life. Then my mother’s father passed away. Then my dad’s father passed away. Then my mother lost her mother. At the same time I was being sentenced for twelve years and they were trying to adopt all four of my children. So I pretty much felt as if I was choosing my gang over my family. So I immediately took the nearest exit. Also I got Xed out over eighty dollars. So my so-called homies traded $$$$$ over my sixteen years of loyalty and sacrifice. In the end I’m happy with my decision and I’m finally free of all gang involvement.

So as of 8/15/12 I chose my only path. I’m currently in a maximum custody facility. I’d like to remind everyone I did absolutely nothing wrong to be in maximum custody, and I still have all 67 of my points, meaning I’ve been in no trouble at
all. I chose to change my life to better my future. If I’m not allowed to change in prison how will I be able to change once I am released, when the odds are stacked against me? I never knew choosing the positive path was going to be punished by the Department of Corrections. I was put into the same IMU (Intensive Management Unit) as one who carries out violent gang missions for the shot-callers. We ex-gang members are trying to establish positive changes, but are being subjected to extremely negative actions by the Department of Corrections. They are putting us with the same violent gang members who try to stab us ex-gang members for choosing the positive path we have. The main reason they build IMUs is for violent
killers such as certain gang members who are lifers. And then too we have such as the “green river killer” (who is only a couple of pods away). The Department has no opportunities for us ex-gang
members to change. We’re not allowed to go to pretty much any mainline in the system, because all the active gang members are running the mainlines! This accounts for most of the crime and violence in and out of prison: the Department of Corrections’ failure to allow ex-gang members to better themselves.

[[[[[ To correspond with this inmate, email a message to him at epochthree3@yahoo.com with Solitary Story #3 in the subject line. ]]]]]

by Solitary Watch Guest Author
Guest Post by Terry A. Kupers, M.D., M.S.P.
Editorsnote: Dr. Terry Kupers is one of the world’s leading experts on the psychological effects of solitary confinement. A psychiatrist with a background in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, forensics, and social and community psychiatry, he teaches at the Wright Institute, a graduate school of psychology in Berkeley, California, while also maintaining a private practice and serving as a consultant to mental health centers and social rehabilitation programs in the community.

Dr. Kupers has studied and worked with prisoners in solitary confinement, and describes mentally ill inmates confined in segregated housing units as “the most severely psychotic people I have seen in more than 25 years of practice.He has testified in several large class action litigations concerning jail and prison conditions, sexual abuse, and the quality of mental health services inside correctional facilities, and served as a consultant to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Stop Prisoner Rape. His books include Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It.

The piece below is an excerpt from a longer article that appeared in the book Humane Prisons, edited by David Jones (Oxford: Radcliffe Publishing, 2006). In the full article, available online here, Dr. Kupers describes in detail
each of the ingredients in his “recipe for creating madness in our prisons”–which is in fact also a recipe for creating an explosion in long-term solitary confinement.

It’s worth pausing for a moment to consider how we created as much madness as exists today in our prisons. Perhaps, after exploring how we arrived at this dreadful state of affairs, we can strive to reverse the process and foster sanity, at the same time developing humane and effective prisons. READ ON: http://solitarywatch.com/2010/09/23/how-to-create-madness-in-prison/

The Washington legislature itself has declared that INMATES AND MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC ARE OBLIGATED TO GET INVOLVED IN THE CORRECTIONS SYSTEM:

RCW 72.09.010(5)(e) Sharing in the obligations of the community. All citizens, the public and inmates alike, have a personal and fiscal obligation in the corrections system. All communities must share in the responsibility of the corrections system.

The Hunger Strike One Year Later-To celebrate the movement: The California prisoner hunger strike one year later “This is the third anniversary since we began using peaceful actions collectively to push for an end to the use of long-term solitary confinement. If we look back and remember before July 2011, we prisoners were alone, isolated, not being heard. We wrote […]

Update from Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition, 4-28-2014-Greetings, This post is chock full of resources and various updates, downloads of recent newsletters, new media articles and PBS specials about solitary confinement, exciting upcoming events with Lynne Stewart, and information on our weekly meetings. Thanks to all the outcry about the recent cell raids in Corcoran SHU, we believe they have stopped, according […]

Video of Legislative Hearing February 11, 2014-Click on the image below for the California Channel recording of the February 11 Joint Informational Hearing on CDCRs Proposed New Policies on Inmate Segregation by the Assembly and Senate Public Safety Committees, three-and-a-half-hour gavel to gavel coverage. And audio is also available: The following links are broadcast quality audio excerpts from the hearing. The […]

Transcript & video of CA Legislative Hearing Oct 9-Here is a link to the video of the Oct 9, 2013 Legislative Hearing on Solitary Confinement. Here is a link to the entire Transcript of the CA legislative hearing of October 9, 2013 (36 page PDF). And a link to some highlights (there were many) or “Takeaway Quotes” from the hearing (2 page PDF).

Still Hungry for Human Rights-As we wrap up 2013, we reflect on the amazing work that has taken place this year in the movement to end torture and abuse in California prisons. Since 2011, our coalition has been at the forefront of the solidarity movement to support the courageous hunger strikers. These prisoners endured a series of hunger strikes […]

The Legislative Hearing of Oct 9-Here are reports on the hearing conducted October 9 by the Joint Public Safety Committee of the California legislature, called by the co-chairs Assemblymember Tom Ammiano and Senator Loni Hancock. Hancock and Ammiano called the hearing in direct response to the hunger strike and have called for another hearing to be held in the next […]

Video from the Coalition of the Rally and Hearing, Sacramento, Oct. 9-A great short compilation of video from the rally and hearing at the California Capitol last week (October 9) has now been posted by Lucas Guilkey. Check it out on Youtube at: “SACRAMENTO: ABOLISH THE SHU TODAY!” (CA legislative hearing). In addition, Lucas has made available his raw footage: RALLY (playlist of 6 videos on […]

Official Video of the CA Legislative Hearing-Video of the hearing as recorded by the Capitol recording system can be viewed or downloaded at the California state channel archives: calchannel.com/recent-archive Look for the title “Joint Informational Hearing on Segregation Policies in California Prisons” dated October 9, 2013. It is just about four hours long, so it’s a very big file and takes […]